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Elimination of Reference Mapping Bias Reveals Robust Immune Related Allele-Specific Expression in Crossbred Sheep.

Mazdak Salavati | Stephen J Bush | Sergio Palma-Vera | Mary E B McCulloch | David A Hume | Emily L Clark
Frontiers in genetics | 2019

Pervasive allelic variation at both gene and single nucleotide level (SNV) between individuals is commonly associated with complex traits in humans and animals. Allele-specific expression (ASE) analysis, using RNA-Seq, can provide a detailed annotation of allelic imbalance and infer the existence of cis-acting transcriptional regulation. However, variant detection in RNA-Seq data is compromised by biased mapping of reads to the reference DNA sequence. In this manuscript, we describe an unbiased standardized computational pipeline for allele-specific expression analysis using RNA-Seq data, which we have adapted and developed using tools available under open license. The analysis pipeline we present is designed to minimize reference bias while providing accurate profiling of allele-specific expression across tissues and cell types. Using this methodology, we were able to profile pervasive allelic imbalance across tissues and cell types, at both the gene and SNV level, in TexelĂ—Scottish Blackface sheep, using the sheep gene expression atlas data set. ASE profiles were pervasive in each sheep and across all tissue types investigated. However, ASE profiles shared across tissues were limited, and instead, they tended to be highly tissue-specific. These tissue-specific ASE profiles may underlie the expression of economically important traits and could be utilized as weighted SNVs, for example, to improve the accuracy of genomic selection in breeding programs for sheep. An additional benefit of the pipeline is that it does not require parental genotypes and can therefore be applied to other RNA-Seq data sets for livestock, including those available on the Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) data portal. This study is the first global characterization of moderate to extreme ASE in tissues and cell types from sheep. We have applied a robust methodology for ASE profiling to provide both a novel analysis of the multi-dimensional sheep gene expression atlas data set and a foundation for identifying the regulatory and expressed elements of the genome that are driving complex traits in livestock.

Pubmed ID: 31608110

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Associated grants

  • Agency: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: BBS/E/D/20211550
  • Agency: Medical Research Council, United Kingdom
    Id: MR/K001744/1

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This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


GATK (tool)

RRID:SCR_001876

A software package to analyze next-generation resequencing data. The toolkit offers a wide variety of tools, with a primary focus on variant discovery and genotyping as well as strong emphasis on data quality assurance. Its robust architecture, powerful processing engine and high-performance computing features make it capable of taking on projects of any size. This software library makes writing efficient analysis tools using next-generation sequencing data very easy, and second it's a suite of tools for working with human medical resequencing projects such as 1000 Genomes and The Cancer Genome Atlas. These tools include things like a depth of coverage analyzers, a quality score recalibrator, a SNP/indel caller and a local realigner. (entry from Genetic Analysis Software)

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SAMTOOLS (tool)

RRID:SCR_002105

Original SAMTOOLS package has been split into three separate repositories including Samtools, BCFtools and HTSlib. Samtools for manipulating next generation sequencing data used for reading, writing, editing, indexing,viewing nucleotide alignments in SAM,BAM,CRAM format. BCFtools used for reading, writing BCF2,VCF, gVCF files and calling, filtering, summarising SNP and short indel sequence variants. HTSlib used for reading, writing high throughput sequencing data.

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Ensembl (tool)

RRID:SCR_002344

Collection of genome databases for vertebrates and other eukaryotic species with DNA and protein sequence search capabilities. Used to automatically annotate genome, integrate this annotation with other available biological data and make data publicly available via web. Ensembl tools include BLAST, BLAT, BioMart and the Variant Effect Predictor (VEP) for all supported species.

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Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (tool)

RRID:SCR_011118

The UK''s leading funding agency for academic research and training in the non-clinical life sciences.

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Natural Environment Research Council (tool)

RRID:SCR_012850

NERC is the UK''s main agency for funding and managing research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. It funds world-class science in universities and our own research centres that increases knowledge and understanding of the natural world. We are tackling the 21st century''s major environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity and natural hazards. We lead in providing independent research and training in the environmental sciences. NERC is a non-departmental public body. We receive funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Working internationally, we have bases in the most hostile parts of the planet. We run a fleet of research ships and aircraft and invest in satellite technology to monitor gradual environmental change on a global scale. We provide knowledge, forewarning and solutions to the key global environmental challenges facing society.

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